Garry Briese Retires as IAFC Executive Director; Guided Chiefs’ Organization To Global Role

After 22 years as executive director of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), Garry L. Briese is retiring to join ICF International, a global consulting firm in the fields of energy, environment, transportation, social services and defense. Briese will become ICF's vice president for business development and homeland security, which means he will continue to be involved in the fire-rescue service.

That's good news because Briese has been a leader in fire politics and an innovative thinker on many critical issues. He was among the first to sound the alarm that terrorism was a genuine threat and that American fire departments had to be better prepared to respond to attacks in their own cities. Even before Oklahoma City and the first World Trade Center attacks, he warned that all levels of government - local, state and national - were unfocused and uncoordinated in their efforts to meet the threat. "We have a lot to learn from other countries that have experienced terrorism," Briese declared as he called for an immediate and on-going exchange of information with fire chiefs in Israel, England and Northern Ireland.

When elected officials and their staffs ignored the warnings, the IAFC went ahead on its own to forge links between fire chiefs across the country and around the world. Those links are even stronger today and just last month, Briese led a delegation of 15 American fire chiefs to Israel to study that country's policies and emergency response to acts of terrorism.

Terrorism is only one of many problems in which Briese has been ahead of the conventional wisdom. Under his guidance, the IAFC became a truly international organization. He strengthened its financial base and put together a highly skilled professional staff to carry out its mission. An important part of that mission has been to establish the IAFC as a credible and influential voice when important fire issues involve Congress and the White House.

Briese also reached out to other fire service organizations, including the International Association of Fire Firefighters (IAFF), to find issues on which they could work together to achieve common goals. Cooperation between the union and the chiefs has led to a unique period in labor-management relations and the passage of significant federal legislation - such as the FIRE Act grants, the SAFER program and an expanded emergency radio spectrum.

Before joining the IAFC, Briese served as a volunteer chief, a career firefighter and an EMT. He has been a strong advocate for the "Everyone Goes Home" campaign to promote firefighter health and safety, especially the reporting of "near misses" that once were hidden to avoid embarrassment but are now used as lessons to prevent line-of-duty deaths. "My unfulfilled goal is that we haven't been able to reduce the number of firefighter fatalities," Briese says. "We have to work much harder." Briese will join the advisory board of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and remain active in the struggle to reduce line-of-duty deaths.

To no one's surprise, the Bush administration's proposed budget for the next fiscal year (2008) includes a billion-dollar cut in funding the fire programs. But no one is pushing the panic button - yet. As previously reported (every year at this time), the budget the President sends to Congress and the budget that Congress eventually passes are two very different things. In what has become an annual legislative high-wire act, the fire programs end up with less money than they had the previous year, but more than the administration wanted to spend.

As always, there are going to be some dramatic moments before that happens and nothing is guaranteed in this tricky game. For example, the FIRE Act grants are budgeted for only $300 million, compared to the $547 million they received this year. Once again, the SAFER program to help cities hire more firefighters has been wiped out. The same thing happened last year, until Congress came up with $115 million in SAFER funds at the last minute. Other homeland security programs that affect the fire service took their share of cuts and the overall trend in funding the federal fire programs continues to slide downhill. It is not a good sign.

However, there's a sense on Capitol Hill that this year's cuts will be easier to restore with the Democrats in control of the House and Senate. It's widely believed that the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) slashes the fire programs because it knows that Congress will put most of the money back. Supposedly, it's all part of a big act in which the administration is trying to show that it's serious about reducing spending and balancing the budget. Maybe so, but it's worth remembering that OMB has never liked the fire programs. That's why the fire organizations are ready for a battle in case they suddenly get a signal that it's time to panic.

HAL BRUNO, a Firehouse contributing editor, retired as political director for ABC News in Washington and served almost 40 years as a volunteer firefighter. He is a director of the Chevy Chase, MD, Fire Department and chairman of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.